AT first glance, our main photograph today looks as though it was taken in a major industrial city at the height of a building boom.

Cranes and derricks swing loads across a river, while a workman below guides them into place.

Look closely, however, and you may recognise the curtain walls in the background.

Yes, they belong to York Castle: and what you are looking at is the building of the modern Castle Mills Bridge – the latest of several bridges to hold the name – as part of the York inner ring road in the mid-1950s.

The new bridge was officially opened on November 22, 1956, by one Hugh Molson MP. Mr Molson was, at the time, the joint parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Aviation – and his name is immortalised on a plaque on the bridge, according to local historian Hugh Murray.

We’re indebted to Mr Murray for all the extraordinary images of the Castle Mills area of York in Yesterday Once More this week.

As well as being a local historian, he is also a keen collector of old photographs and postcards.

He has a collection running into the tens of thousands – a good many of which he used in the past to illustrate a regular series of lectures on York’s history.

Our photographs today come from that collection – and focus on the Castle Mills area at various stages of its history.

One, dating from 1910, shows the Foss in flood, the waters almost up to the arch of the stone bridge.

Another photograph, taken in 1922 Mr Murray believes, shows repairs to the lock. In the background there is a clear view of a wall of advertising hoardings, of the kind that were plastered everywhere across York at the time and which were one of the pet hates of the conservationist Dr William Arthur Evelyn.

They include posters for Nestlé milk (this was long before Nestlé took over Rowntrees, remember) and Bass, among others.

There is a view of Pulleyn’s Garage – which stood on the site where the Postern Gate pub now stands – taken probably in the late 1940s or early 1950s, Mr Murray believes. And going back even further, there are a couple of photographs of the Phoenix Weighbridge, which stood on the same site before the garage.

The weighbridge was associated with the Phoenix Foundry, until the foundry moved from Fishergate to Leeman Road in the mid-1870s.

The name lives on in the Phoenix Inn just inside Fishergate Bar, although the old Phoenix Foundry buildings in Leeman Road themselves – more recently the Jarvis/Fastline rail depot buildings – were demolished at the end of last year.

In the second of our two photographs of the weighbridge, it has already been converted into a working men’s club, so this was presumably taken after the Phoenix Foundry moved to Leeman Road.

And finally, we have a photograph of a building that would have been instantly recognisable to any York resident towards the end of the 1800s: the gatehouse of York Prison.

This was probably taken in about 1900, Mr Murray says – soon after the civil prison closed.

York Press: The Phoenix weighbridge after it became a working men's club. Leedham’s flour mill can be seen in the distance
The Phoenix weighbridge after it became a working men's club. Leedham’s flour mill can be seen in the distance

York Press: York Prison gatehouse from the outside, probably taken soon after the civil prison closed in about 1900
York Prison gatehouse from the outside, probably taken soon after the civil prison closed in about 1900

• Don’t miss Yesterday Once More next week, when we will be taking a glimpse inside the old York Prison, courtesy once again of Mr Murray’s photograph collection.